Can Australian civic culture accommodate Gov 2.0?

On Monday 22 June, I will be speaking at Senator Kate Lundy's 'Public Sphere #2: Government 2.0' at Parliament House in Canberra. Program details are available here.

The ideas for my presentation are developed from my work at the University of Canberra where I have been experimenting with new media in teaching and research for some time. My experience from numerous consultations with community groups and involvement in social media also informs the ideas outlined in the slideshow below:

Public Sphere 2 - Gov 2.0

View more OpenOffice presentations from Michael De percy.

I am not convinced that Australia's civic culture sits comfortably with open government and online policy engagement. While there are plenty of interested citizens and groups, my prediction is that there will be a period of 'cultural' upheaval as citizens (who historically have not been involved in formal democratic processes) gain greater access to government.

The demands of citizens will arguably multiply as citizens come to expect more opportunities for active engagement with governments at all levels. This trend, which has commenced in the US, will no doubt permeate the news media as events unfold there. In the meantime (and enabled by new media), blocking citizens from accessing government information will be like holding back the proverbial tide.

But the education sector has a significant role to play in providing citizens with the skills to become effective participants in open government. One of the major challenges is that educational institutions are part of the fabric of Australian civic culture. Indeed, I would argue that a culture of openness is yet to develop in our educational institutions.

How we meet these challenges will require significant cultural change. How we get there means there are very interesting times ahead.

NY Senate to 'open up'

Thanks to Twitter:

RT @JeffreyPeel RT @dalezak: Wanna see the future of politics? http://open.nysenate.gov #opengov #gov20 #g2010 - way to go NY!

New York is opening up access to state data for use by citizens. This is fantastic news!

During a number of recent presentations, I have argued that all sorts of public information should be available for use by citizens. My favourite example is the bus timetable information in Ottawa which was developed by Canadian citizens. The OC Transpo service is already second-to-none in my experience, so this adds an extra value dimension.

I am very keen to see if something similar could be developed by citizens in Canberra, especially so I could work out how to catch a bus in Palmerston via Gungahlin. But can you freely access the information?

I say more power to the people. In the meantime, mash away NY!

Australia beats US for broadband access | Australian IT

The release of this media report on Australia's international broadband standing raises some interesting issues.

While I agree that broadband penetration should be measured by households, not individual connections, there are several other issues concerning how broadband is measured.

A major problem is how 'broadband' is actually defined. The OECD still uses 'always on' with a download speed above 256kbps. Hardly broadband in the Web 2.0 era.

Synchronous (two-way) 1.5mbps is generally accepted as the minimum speed for adequate teleconferencing facilities, and this is the measure Canada adopted in the early 2000s. The ACCC's earlier reports on broadband adoption in Australia have used 200kbps or above. This measure significantly lowers the bar.

Further, the methods of collecting data are problematic. The OECD relies on 'theoretical' best speeds and advertised prices, in addition to government-produced estimates and statistics, in ranking member countries.

The Akamai 'State of the Internet' report, I understand, uses data actually collected from participating servers worldwide. The Quarter 4, 2008 report records Australia as well below both the US and Canada in terms of 'fast' broadband. To make matters worse, Palmerston via Gungahlin (see earlier post) has theoretical speeds of 1.5mbps which drop to below dial-up each evening.

Until the problems of data collection and reliability are resolved, I remain very sceptical about reports which claim Australian broadband is more accessible than in the US.

See the full article: Australia beats US for broadband access Australian IT.